All local newspaper groups audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation have recorded an increase in web traffic for the first six months of the year, compared to the first half of 2012.

KM Group's Kent Online experienced the largest increase in unique browsers, recording an increase in traffic of 41.3 per cent year-on-year in the six months to June. KM Group is the smallest group in the audited list in terms of web traffic, with 637,102 monthly uniques on average.

Johnston Press, the local news group with the highest web traffic, now has more than 11.1 million unique browsers a month coming to sites in its network. Titles include The Scotsman and the Lancashire Evening Post and combined traffic is up 13.6 per cent year-on-year.

Newsquest sites received an average of just under 10.9 million monthly unique browsers, up 24.6 per cent year-on-year, while Trinity Mirror Regionals recorded 10.6 million monthly unique browsers between January and June. Trinity Mirror saw the smallest increase in web traffic out of the six regional groups, of 5.8 per cent year-on-year.

Midland News Association, which owns the Express and Star and the Shropshire Star, had an average of just under 1.6 million uniques in the first six months of the year, an increase of 20.5 per cent on the same period last year.

Newsquest's Herald Scotland was the audited local news site with the greatest increase in monthly traffic, up 65.9 per cent year-on-year. Local World's South Wales Evening Post recorded a 57.8 per cent increase.

KM Group's Kent Online was the only other local news site which increased in monthly browsers by more than 40 per cent year-on-year, with an increase of 41.3 per cent.

Local sites which recorded a rise in monthly traffic year-on-year by more than 30 per cent were Local World's Bristol Post (up 35.9 per cent), Cambridge News (a rise of 31.2 per cent), and Nottingham Post (an increase of 39.1 per cent), plus Newsquest's Brighton Argus (up 32 per cent).

Regional publishers can now choose to report figures via ABC every month, every six months or annually.